Melissa Gorga delivered some surprising truth bombs about how she really felt about her now-husband Joe Gorga when they first met.
The RHONJ star told Kim DePaola on her podcast that she was initially put off by Gorga, stating that she wasn’t interested in a relationship when he first introduced himself to her. However, his tenacity won her over.
Melissa Gorga Had Some Strict Dating Rules, and Joe Gorga Didn’t Fit Them
Melissa Gorga surprised longtime RHONJ fans by sitting down for an interview with Kim DePaola for her podcast “Get Real with Kim D.” The longtime nemesis’ had an extended conversation about life, love, and RHONJ for a video uploaded to DePaola’s Patreon.
In a clip shared on Instagram, DePaola asked Gorga about the first time she met her husband, Joe Gorga. Her candid response quickly caught fans’ attention, as she revealed her honest first impression of him.
“He walks up to my bar,” Gorga said. “Tiny, built, typically Italian stocky guy.”
“He’s got the chain on, he’s got the skintight shirt. He had hair at the time, it was all curly,” she continued.
“The lines…it doesn’t get more Italian than this. I’m like, ‘seriously?’ He was at that time, trying to pursue me and trying to get me to on a date with him.”
“He’s like, ‘I’ve been watching you, you’re gonna be my wife one day,'” Gorga claimed. “And he kept looking at me in my eyes, like ‘you’re gonna be my wife.'”
“I kept blowing him off,” Gorga concluded. “I was like, ‘I’m not marrying an Italian.'”
She eventually relented, and the couple began dating. They tied the knot, just as Gorga predicted, on August 20, 2004.
RHONJ Fans Were Shocked That Melissa Gorga Appeared on Kim DePaola’s Podcast
RHONJ fans recall that Kim DePaola (commonly known as “Kim D.”) appeared on the show, and was a longtime nemesis to Gorga. DePaola was tight with Teresa Giudice and involved in “stripper-gate” rumors targeting Gorga.
The podcast host hasn’t appeared on RHONJ since Season 8.
After years of drama, the women called a truce in 2025. DePaola told Radar Online, that she decided to stop speaking negatively about Gorga after a friend called her and asked her why she continued to behave in such a manner toward her former co-star. After that phone call, DePaola patronized Gorga’s Envy Boutique, purchasing an item from the store.
DePaola explained, “Eight days later, I got a really nice text from Melissa thanking me for the support. She said she was happy I came in. We went back and forth for a bit and we agreed we always secretly liked each other and didn’t know why things went awry. We really, truly, sincerely made up.”
“It’s a sincere makeup. We’re good,” she concluded.
RHONJ is currently on hiatus. Returning for Season 15 are Melissa Gorga, Teresa Giudice, and Dolores Catania. The show has undergone a major overhaul since Season 14, when tensions were so bad between certain cast members that bringing them back together for a new season seemed impossible.
After almost two years, it was announced that Gorga, Giudice, and Catania were the only cast members set to appear in the show’s new season. No longer appearing are Jennifer Aydin, Danielle Cabral, Margaret Josephs, and Rachel Fuda.
